Yesterday was a good day. My group in Poblacion, Morong put on a community event in which we hosted about 30 community members to introduce ourselves and to help us understand where we live. We put on a 3 hour event of activities and discussions. We used as much Tagalog as possible, but in the end we had to use primarily English and speak slow. I will note that I was completely blown away by how much comrehension I had for the Tagalog spoke by the community. It's hard to believe we have only been in this community less than a week. I'm proud of my group for what we were able to put together .After we wrapped up, the other married person in our group, Beth, and I shared a trike cab to Sabang to visit our mga asawa (spouses). I picked up Lauren and met the rest of her family. We walked down to the beach were we ran into many fellow volunteers glad to be out on a saturday evening. We spoke to two bright eyed volunteers both named Ali who were gathering ingrediants to make guacamole. Lauren and I sat on a concrete dock and watched this sunset. I met a group of local kids who where oddly all named after famous basketball players. I introduced myself as Tim Duncan and they just staired blankly at me. No love for the Spurs, even in Bataan.
We walked down to the beach and set up a little blanket where we shared a couple of San Miguel Pilsners and much need catch up time. I brought the beers and a little radio, Lauren brought an umbrella, and we sat in the rain and had one of the best times I can remember.
It cleared up after a while and we walked down to meet up with the other volunteers who were gathered for a beach bonfire. We were able to have about 30 minutes of fire before I had to go back. I was able to have a bite of guac and a homemade tortilla which was the second best part of my day. Walking back to the trike stand it really started to rain. No trikes were at the stand so We had to walk out to the highway to get one there. I got home soked and 30 minutes late but people here seem to understand it is very hard to be on time in the rain.
Today I'll do laundry. I think I will get started go it can have time to dry before it rains again.
